# HG changeset patch # User Henry Thompson # Date 1718137569 -3600 # Node ID d124a9691bcacd65e48685e64583f3051fc542ac # Parent e8e902a1279c64889042513d94aee79453076d50 stop diff -r e8e902a1279c -r d124a9691bca Ballard_2024-06-11.txt --- a/Ballard_2024-06-11.txt Tue Jun 11 20:35:21 2024 +0100 +++ b/Ballard_2024-06-11.txt Tue Jun 11 21:26:09 2024 +0100 @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ HT: Tell your Quaker story MB: At Univ, in early 1990s, moved into a new flat, I had agreed to take -over that running of the EU Green Society. My flatmate Anna agreed a +over that running of the EU Green Society. My flatmate Anna [Levin] agreed a deal, that she would go to GS mtgs, if I would go to Quaker meeting, which was Victoria Terrace. Soon I felt the "secret power" and go "knitted in". @@ -36,3 +36,37 @@ Ministry, here, now, without any qualification feels very different to me. HT: Like +MB: We started with "secret power" and knit.. + I thought I was coming to a gathering of friendly people who were +a bit spiritual, and it takes a while, years, to detect the secret +seeking for spirtual guidance that we shared. You're not just sitting +with a bunch of like-minded people, rather you may find what someone +else's spiritual path may not be going where yours is. But that's +actually a very important aspect of Quakerism. +MfW and the QBusMe are a great resolution of the Protestant dilemma, +that there is no barrier between God and us. +Right Ordering does belong as a religious test for being Quaker. +[HT and MB discuss theory of membership] +Environmental Protest Workshop on decision making, democratic process, +anarchist consensus decision process, ceding authority to someone in a +protest in order to make us safe, you take it for all of us and it is +by definition right. So the same for MCA: you aren't there, you +uphold them for the decision the make. +JD: I agree about the respnsibilty/rights relationship, but you can + also take initiative [ref joke] +MB: Musselb members are interested in a 3rd weekly meeting, and +although I'd rather that didn't happen, I would uphold them and attend +if they decide to go ahead. Just because I don't want to organise it +doesn't mean I won't support them if they do. +[A complicated history] +MB: My love of Quakers, ref. Anna and the Green Party story. There +was a MFA about same-sex marriage, when (before York) a male couple had asked +for a ceremony of commitment, and it was a difficult MFA. And the SGP +was in some internal difficulties, where when you won a vote on a +problematic issue, if you 'won' the vote, you tried you best to get +rid of the losers, whereas the MCA worked very hard to support _all_ +the people there, to respect their pain and acknowledge it, respecting +that of God in the people on the "other side". +We are happy to recommend membership for MB, it's "a full stop on my +process of discernment on whether I should become a Member" and it +fills me with joy to join in the recommendation.